Racial Academic Segregation: A Unified Analysis of Stratified Educational Experiences Between and Within Schools

• In Event: 21020 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 16: Racial Inequities and School Choice: Exploring the Dynamics of Segregation, Perception, and Community

Abstract

Although there is substantial scholarship on both school racial segregation and racialized within-school tracking, few studies have examined how these two processes function jointly. In this study, we analyze racial inequality between and within 37 high schools situated within a large urban public school district. We focus not only on racial differences in the rigor of the courses high schoolers take but also on overall levels of racial academic segregation–that is, the difference in the level of peer academic achievement that the average Black vs. White or Hispanic vs. White student experiences in the classrooms that they attend throughout the school day. By drilling down from school to classroom level peer composition, our analysis explores heterogeneity in the typical peer academic exposure that students experience throughout their day as they engage in hyperlocal learning networks where composition influences instruction as well as the exchange of cultural and social capital.

Authors

• Peter M. Rich, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Vansa Shewakramani Hanson, Texas A&M University-College Station